


darling it's better down where it's wetter

by misspandalily



Series: the neji to my ten [2]
Category: Naruto
Genre: 2017, AU, F/M, NejiTen - Freeform, Under the Sea, nejitenmonth, puns everywhere
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-14
Updated: 2017-07-14
Packaged: 2018-12-02 02:48:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,570
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11500191
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misspandalily/pseuds/misspandalily
Summary: A NejiTen 'under the sea' AU - featuring nejiten, a gratuitous amount of marine puns and made-up vocabulary.





	darling it's better down where it's wetter

**Author's Note:**

> First of all, thank you to everyone who left a review or thoroughly enjoyed the previous chapter! I've received some enquiries about how to participate/where to access the stories and entries for Nejiten Month - if you look up 'nejitenmonth' on tumblr, there is an account dedicated to the happenings of NejiTen for this entire July month along with instructions (if you search for the very first post). Enjoy!
> 
> Prompt: AU, things we wish we said
> 
> Disclaimer: I own neither Naruto nor The Little Mermaid.

"I'm telling you - no one will ever lay in your clam shell if you keep acting like there's kelp up your tail hole."

Neji rolls his eyes and swims over to his front door, spotting a giggling Tenten webbed-arm-in-arm with his cousin. Naruto stops yammering and follows his line of sight. "Is that Hinata?"

Neji whips his head around in time to see Naruto's gills flare up - a sign of giddy excitement that definitely should not be appearing as far as he's concerned. Tails of pearl-white and burgundy float closer towards them; Neji wrenches on a smile as Naruto swims to the incoming mermaids and envelopes them in a big hug.

"Lady Hinata. Tenten." Both mermaids greet him with toothy smiles. Naruto's nose catches a current of fish soup as he turns around at the exact same moment Hinata manages to eke out a greeting. Tenten, being the kindred spirit that she is, immediately whacks Naruto's shoulder.

"Ow! Hey, what's your problem?"

"Hello to you too, you dugong."

At that, Naruto smiles bashfully. "Sorry - just a little hungry."

"You ate an entire whale ten waves ago," Neji says flatly.

"Hilarious," Naruto deadpans. "But I'm a growing merman! I need the sustenance!"

"You turned five hundred just last moon. In no wave is that young," Tenten snorts and prods his cheek with the back of her portable mini-trident.

"Younger than you," he sticks out his tongue in response and hides behind Hinata when Tenten charges toward him. "Help! It's a bull-shark!"

Neji uses another moment to emphatically roll his eyes at Naruto and opens his door. "You ready?"

Tenten nods several times before swimming into their red coral apartment. They hear Naruto let out a long seal-whistle when the door shuts behind them.

"He doesn't know what we're actually doing, right?" Tenten glances at him in amusement as she blows kisses at Naruto and Hinata from the window. Neji finds himself struck silent with the reminder of what's to come. She'd been planning her expedition of the Pacific Ocean a solid three moons prior to their graduation yesterday - it'll quite literally be the only time in his life that Tenten won't be a fixture in his daily routines. He proffers a cup of his infamously bitter seaweed tea to her and smiles when she accepts it gratefully.

"No. But I'm sure he somehow found a way to interpret a discussion of the complexities of sea-air transformation as procreation."

"He probably zoned out before he heard the 'ex' in 'complexities'. Naruto isn't exactly academically inclined."

"He can be," Neji practically pouts, "I know he can - I've seen him in high-shoal."

"Not everyone in Konoha goes to shoallege like we do, Neji. The Mer can only do so much in one place before they want to explore." Neji watches her swim to the gigantic oceanic map dominating on one of their walls and stare at it wistfully. She's an unusual being, even in a settlement like Konoha that reputedly has the highest rates of marine diversity in the ocean.

He sighs. "Are you ready?"

Tenten nods her head solemnly. "Exploration is in my blood, Neji; I can feel it. I just wish I didn't have to leave you behind." He catches the regret in her gaze and sets his own cup of tea down.

"It had to happen some day," he assures her quietly, "I just hope you find what you're looking for."

"My people, you mean."

He shrugs. This is no revelation to Neji. He'd known her since she was one-hundred and even as a young merling he knew she didn't fit in completely. The webbing under her arms were a dead giveaway - she was the only one in the entire city with such features. And her tail, common colour as it was, wasn't scaled like theirs. It was smooth to the touch, like sealskin.

Physically, Tenten had never been able to integrate herself into their society, even though she'd been around since seven-hundred years ago and grew up with the same customs and traditions. She had friends, for sure, friends like Lee and Gai and Naruto and Hinata who all loved and treated her like a sister. She had shoallege friends who drank purified kelp juice with her until the early waves of the morning before returning to their apartment with her sea-shell bra clearly missing.

And she has him - he's not sure where he stands with her, he's not sure if he likes it that way, and he isn't about to consult anyone about his completely non-platonic feelings for her anytime in the near future. Soberly, anyway. The few times he'd been drunk enough to psycho-vent to someone was when Naruto had also been around, and sadly, the merman hadn't been completely sloshed like he was so he heard everything.

Everything, being the fact that Neji is irrevocably in love with his best friend, and that his guts are the approximate size of a shrimp. Five-hundred years loving Tenten's kindness and her ability to be simultaneously open yet firm, and the closest he ever got to telling her was - ironically - when they were both inebriated beyond relief.

And to this day, Naruto remains the most terrifying part of Neji's life for the secrets he's holding in that head-hole of his.

Neji's point is, despite being a beloved member of their community, Tenten is distinctly different because she wants to go. When tiny merchildren of Konoha cower in fear of the deep blue sea stretching beyond their village, Tenten is the one who tells them stories about the underwater - from the fantastic beasts swimming over them with their gigantic tails and expert current manipulation to the smaller ones that make homes out of strange places like rock pools.

He's even heard her talk about the 'neighbouring' villages on occasion. Suna with it's never-ending sandstorms and sinkholes, Kiri with its more volatile currents, Iwa where the entire city is embedded and carved within a deep trench, and (admittedly) terrifying Kumo where the seas are almost impossible to live in.

Neji rarely ever misses the spark in her eyes when she speaks, and never fails to notice the way it dims slightly when she's asked where she wants to go first. She wants to go everywhere, Tenten says with a laugh.

And then her face turns slightly purple after the merchildren are gone. She wants to go home.

"Where do you think it is?"

Neji looks up slowly and realises he's floated to the ceiling; although, Tenten hasn't seemed to notice either. Her back is still facing him, brown hair lazily curling around in response to the currents.

"Not the five villages, so where?" He frowns when she does.

"I don't know," Neji says honestly.

"I want to find it," she echoes the same words she's been saying for the past three centuries. "I need to find my home." Even if it means leaving you, is the unspoken phrase when she yet again turns to him apologetically. He's heard her mantra enough times to numb himself from the pain that comes with her departure (he hopes). The only difference was that he'd always remained silent before, but now that she's actually leaving...

Neji stops her with a hesitant touch on her shoulder - she looks at him, a purplish tinge to her nose. His next words feel like spears piercing through his chest. "Next moon, we'll all be searching for our own strings of Fate. Mine is standing before me," he plows on when something akin to shock passes through her expression. "But I know yours lies beyond the waters of Konoha."

Tenten appears to have been hit by two whales and a giant squid, because she's catatonic by the time he finishes his speech. He rubs the back of his necks, steadily growing more nervous the longer she stays silent. Was it something he said?

"Am I-" Neji perks up when she looks at him sharply. "Am I your string of fate?"

"Your- what?"

"You said I was your string of fate," she asserts, a glimmer of something in her eye that unsettles him. He stares back at her blankly as he hurriedly flicks through the conversation and oh.

"Well," he coughs, his mind reaching a blank. Tenten shakes her head, amused, and short-circuits his brain by placing the palm of her webbed hand on his cheek.

"You're right. Thank you for understanding."

Briefly, Neji contemplates backtracking his earlier reassurances and changing her mind - they don't graduate for another month for one, and he honestly doesn't know how he'll cope without her there to buffer Naruto's...uniqueness.

A deep part of him will forever curse him for letting her leave without at least telling her that he's loved her since they met, but Neji is a man of practicality above all. He won't help her achieve anything by confessing - not now, at least.

He settles for a rare hug, pulling her in and allowing the scent of raw salmon shampoo in her hair to waft into his nostrils comfortingly - achingly. The words are on the tip of his tongue.

"I," Tenten makes a humming sound when he speaks, "I wish you a safe journey." Neji closes his eyes and soaks himself in her scent again, knowing that he's her last stop before she goes.

"Thank you again, Neji," she gives him a watery smile and clasps his hands in between hers. "For everything."


End file.
